Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Paul Ryan Already Benefited from the Social Security Fund He Now Wants to Gut

By Kase Wickman, Raw Story

Rep.
Paul Ryan, the GOP’s most outspoken advocate for cutting and
privatizing Social Security, has already benefited from Social Security
himself, in the form of survivor benefits he received after his father’s
untimely death.

From the age of 16, when his 55-year-old
father died of a heart attack, until he was 18, Ryan received Social Security payments, which, according to a lengthy profile in WI Magazine,
he put away for college. The eventual budget czar attended Miami
University in Ohio to earn a B.A. in economics and political science,
and landed a congressional internship as a junior.

Ryan’s
congressional ascent, all the way to the top spot on the Budget
Committee, began with his Social Security-funded college education.

Ryan’s
so-called Roadmap for America’s Future budget plan proposed
machete-like cuts — most notably to social services like Medicare and
Social Security. Paul’s idea was to invest portions of Social Security
funds in Wall Street, essentially forcing future recipients
to make unsecured investments with with money they’ll later need for
retirement — and endangering survivor benefits like the ones he
received.

“Ryan credits his father’s death and the care of his
grandmother as giving him first-hand experience as to how social
service programs work,” WI Magazine wrote, referencing his
Alzheimer’s-stricken grandmother, also a beneficiary of the social
programs Ryan now opposes, who moved in with Ryan and his mother after
his father died.

Without the Social Security benefits he
received, Ryan would have had more difficulty attending college, and
wouldn’t have become “Wisconsin’s fiscal dreamboat,” as the profile dubs
him, or, as Democrats nationwide have painted him, the Enemy Number 1
to seniors and social services.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) wagged his finger at Ryan
in a statement in January: “Paul Ryan owes it to the national audience
tonight to explain why he wants to privatize Social Security and
Medicare.” Ryan’s Social Security reforms didn’t make it into
the final draft of the budget the House passed last week, but as the
chairman of the Budget Committee, he’s in a position to push the House
to adopt his plan at a later date.

The
focus in the social entitlements cut conversation has been on seniors,
but “survivor benefits,” like the payments that Ryan and his family
received, and help for the
disabled, account for about a third of Social Security payments. Rep. Paul Ryan’s office did not respond to Raw Story’s requests for comment